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PORTLAND, Pray. – Asking election officials to “count every vote,” protesters marched through the streets of several US cities on Wednesday in response to President Trump’s aggressive effort to challenge the counting of votes in Tuesday’s presidential election.
In Minneapolis, protesters blocked a highway, leading to arrests. In Portland, hundreds gathered on the boardwalk to protest the president’s attempts to intervene in the vote count while a separate group protesting police and urging racial justice emerged downtown, smashing shop windows and confronting officials from the police and National Guard troops.
In Phoenix, around 150 pro-Trump protesters, some of them armed, gathered outside the county recorder’s office where a vote count was taking place that could help determine the outcome of the election.
At various points, protesters argued that Adrian Fontes, the county official who oversees elections in Maricopa County, did not incorrectly count some ballots and cost Trump votes in Arizona’s most populous county, although there was no evidence. that the ballots had been made incorrectly. thrown off.
Keely Varvel, deputy principal at Fontes, said there were no plans to stop the counting of the ballots due to the protest outside the building. “We are still planning to finish our scheduled ballot processing work and report more results tonight,” Ms. Varvel said.
In Detroit, another group of pro-Trump election observers gathered earlier in the day outside a ballot-counting center, demanding that officials “stop counting” ballots after the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the counting in Michigan.
Trump claimed early Wednesday that he had won the election long before key states counted all their ballots. He spent much of the day claiming, without evidence, that people were trying to “steal” his election and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the many ballots mailed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier Thursday, Joseph R. Biden Jr. was just a handful of electoral votes away from winning the election, and the Trump campaign was mounting an aggressive legal effort to challenge the recount, filing lawsuits in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
“It’s such a dangerous time,” said Carol Carmick, 59, who said she joined the protests in Portland out of fear that Trump will try to stay in power even if he loses the election.
Protesters also gathered in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere, some of them continuing the protests for racial justice and policing that have rocked the country since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. More demonstrations were scheduled for the next few days.
In Minneapolis, several hundred protesters enraged by the president’s remarks marched onto Interstate 94, prompting police to clear the road.
“Our goal is not to allow Donald Trump to steal this election from the American people,” Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer who was part of the protest, said in a telephone interview from the highway. He said that the protesters had stopped traffic and that the police, some on horseback, had started making arrests and were not allowing the protesters to leave.
Minnesota State Patrol said on Twitter that he was arresting protesters and that demonstrating on the highway “is illegal and very dangerous for pedestrians and motorists.”
In New York, protesters held a peaceful rally in Manhattan on Wednesday morning to call for all votes to be counted and for racial equality, but hostile clashes between a separate group of protesters and the police later developed when they cut briefly traffic in the west. Village, and officers pushed the protesters onto the sidewalks and arrested at least 20 people.
In Portland, hundreds of people marched through downtown. “The voting is over. The fight continues ”, read a poster. Later, the crowd stopped at a separate “Count Every Vote” rally along the boardwalk, where speakers expressed fears that Trump, who lost decisively in Oregon, was trying to sabotage the election and prevent votes from being voted out. are counted in other states.
A part of the crowd advanced through the center of the city, where some people broke windows. At that point, dozens of policemen began chasing the crowd through the streets and declared a riot. Gov. Kate Brown had issued an emergency declaration earlier that day, allowing her to activate the National Guard that joined operations Wednesday night. Authorities said they made 10 arrests.
The city has seen persistent protests since May, and many of the protesters have vowed to continue their actions to support racial justice and oppose police brutality no matter who wins the election.
Refuse Fascism organized more than a dozen protests against Trump’s efforts to prevent votes from being counted. In Seattle, a group of protesters shouted, “Every city, every town, Trump-Pence now,” and “count every vote.”
At the pro-Trump event in Phoenix, at least 150 people gathered in front of the State Capitol before marching to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.
“The only way Biden can win Arizona is through fraud,” said Jim Williams, 67, a welder who attended the protest. “I will not accept a victory from Biden. I don’t want to live under the communist regime. “
Some in the crowd chanted “Down with Fox,” reflecting protesters ‘anger over Fox News’ decision on Tuesday to call Arizona for Mr. Biden, a move other media outlets later followed.
Mike baker reported from Portland, Nicolas Bogel-Burroughs from New York, and Simon Romero of Phoenix. The reports were contributed by Christiaan Triebert Y Ed shanahan In New York, Kaitlin gillespie in Portland, and Golden hallie in Seattle.
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